Animal Services Advisory Board

Wichita Animal Services Advisory Board September 16, 2020 Meeting Minutes Board Members attending: Teresa Burks, Mike Marlett, Richard Ruth, Patrick Atkins, Vanessa Christophersen, Stephanie McCurdy, Elaine Stephen, Ti'Juana Hardwell City staff attending: Interim Deputy Chief (I.D.C.) Chester Pinkston Community members attending Ten community members attended in person, and approximately 146 viewed online. Order of Business Meeting called to order by Chair, Vanessa Christophersen. Approval of the July 2020 minutes: • Board discussion – Board members discussed the minutes from the July 2020 minutes. • Motion – Motion to postpone the approval of minutes until they are amended to reflect the discussion on Data Requirements. • Board Action – Voted 7-0 (Motion Passes) Staff Reports • Staff report on Wichita Animal Shelter 2020 2nd quarter statistics presented by I.D.C. Chester Pinkston. The report is attached. • Public Question: Are the euthanasia rates higher or lower or about the same? • Pinkston: Right now, they are substantially lower. • Board Discussion: • Shelter, Data, and communicate how the shelter is serving our community. • Richard Ruth: We are now getting data from the Wichita Animal Shelter, and now it is being published to the web. But if you want to get a good picture of how animal welfare is working in Wichita, then having data from all shelters, all rescues would be beneficial to judge how we are doing as a city. • Stephanie McCurdy: At the beginning of each year, we ask our rescue partners to give a formal report on the previous year. Those are reflected in every January's minutes. • (Discussion on owner data, what's public and what's not.) • How many of the animals are being euthanized, how many are going to rescues, how many going to adoptees? • Public Comment (Emily Hurst Chief Development Officer at Kansas Humane Society): When we take an animal from lost, we provide all of the data to the public. It is reported on the KHS website and the Shelter Animals Count website, and it is published every month and year.  New Business 1. Board Discussion: Learn what happens to the animal's already microchipped when animals are brought into WAS and KHS: • Can a cat that is difficult to handle still be scanned for a microchip? Yes. • Pinkston: It is rare that we can't get a read on a chip. Occasionally we might miss a chip. Migration of the chip doesn't happen often, but it does happen. • The numbers that you get back is it from the manufacturers? • Pinkston: The information comes from whoever the repository of information is. • It is essential to let the microchip company know when your information changes. • Your Veterinarian can also assist with this registration. • Most of the companies are based online, and when they are microchipped, the owner is advised to update this information. • You do not have to update the information yearly, but you need to update the information when you move, change numbers, etc. • If the animal is registered to somebody, you call and try, but if it is not registered, do you call the place that implanted the chip, like the veterinary clinic, the shelter, etc.? • Pinkston: We've done those things, but typically it begins and ends with a phone call to the most recently registered person. • When an animal comes in and has a chip, does that information get registered into your chameleon software with that animal? • Pinkston: We do keep track of it, so if the animal comes back again, we know. 2. Licensing of owned cats with the intention of: • Reducing overpopulation • Assisting with the reconnection of cats and owners when a cat gets out. • The board talked last year about wanting to control the number of owned cats that reproduce without hesitation and then get dumped in addition to controlling the feral cats through Trap, Neuter, and Release (TNR). It sounds like the idea of licensing has come up before but, maybe licensing isn't the right idea, but maybe we could start brainstorming some ideas for controlling the overpopulation of owned cats. • Increase the number of free Spay and Neuter clinics or somehow maybe microchipping clinics. • In some of the neighborhoods that have higher incidents of overpopulation, we could do mobile clinics. • On the Spay & Neuter Committee about three different things were looked at as potentials: • Fix by Five Program: If you fix a cat by five months of age, it won't be able to reproduce. • Feed a cat fix a cat: Promotion to encourage people who are feeding cats to take responsibility to spay and neuter the cat. • Also looked at the license: This would be a way to give teeth to the Police to enforce on complaint calls. • The disadvantage to the licensing is nobody wants it. People do not want to pay for a cat license. • According to nationwide statistics, the compliance rate for licensing is super low. • When we talk about responsible pet owners, a lot of it starts with education. • This topic has been discussed in previous meetings. The advisory board can discuss and recommend to the council. • Licensing fees would go to the general fund and not directly to the Animal Shelter. • Public Comment (Emily Hurst from KHS): There are 98 cats at the Animal Shelter. They have difficulties. That number is going to change next week because of adoptions. The KHS works really hard on educating the public; they do spay and neuter days (where they do it for free for the owner). They can build a comprehensive plan, but our goal is animal welfare. We are always open to finding and locating different revenue sources to fund a campaign.  • If we could do some sort of wrap-around, encompass TNR, education, etc. • Check the chip day; it is an opportunity to check the chip information. • Yes, but people don't always show up for these events. • Spay and Neuters have fallen behind because of COVID-19 • Beauties and Beasts: If you need rescue support to do spay-neuter clinics or education events, we are on board to assist. • Board Discussion – Start thinking about ways to support education and maybe look into if this is something the City can do. • Previously when we have done and education piece, the City puts that on the social media channels. A few years ago, the board partnered with KHS and had a booth at Woofstock. The board made pamphlets and handed them out at these events. • Maybe we could use the existing pamphlets and start there? • (The printing of the pamphlets was donated) • Maybe we can put a committee together on how to start this. • Richard, Teressa, and Emily will help with this committee • Public Comment: We need to be in the schools bigtime, educating is missed. Getting kids involved will help very much to start getting those animals fixed and getting those kids to be the responsible pet owners we want in society. • Public Comment (Christy Fisher, Wichita Animal Action League): We currently have a program we use for girl scouts and boy scouts. I agree we need to start changing minds and education at a young age. • Does KHS have classes for families adopting a pet? • Emily Hurst: KHS does serve all of USD 259. They offer community classes. They previously did have classes for Children, Adults, and families, but we currently don't have a trainer on staff. • Public Comment (Dorothy Crumb): We have students that want to volunteer, but they are in their teens. • The board recommends a sub-committee look into this further: Elaine Stephen will chair this committee, Teressa Burks will co-chair. Old Business 1. Relocation of board meetings. • Board Discussion: Possible move of meeting location to allow more time for meetings and space. KHS previously advised they can accommodate the needs of the board regarding time. • Motion: To relocate board meetings to the Transit Center. • VOTE: 0-7 Motion Failed 2. Breeding ordinance amendment to remove the requirement for two females to require a breeder's license. • Teressa Burks: We had a person from the community that is a responsible owner who would like to keep her dogs intact, but is not a breeder. The City's current definition of a dog breeder is a person who raises or produces dogs or puppies for sale or profit. It is presumed that person who advertises the sale of dogs or puppies or a person that owns two or more unaltered female dogs is a dog breeder. • Recommendation: To strike the portion about two un-altered female dogs. • Just because they are intact does not mean they are being bred. • 80% of the public spay and neuter their dogs. So for the majority of people, it is irrelevant. • Other previsions prevent having a female in heat come in contact with a male dog. • We could change the wording to allow Show Dog owners to have two intact females instead of striking the portion about two un-altered female dogs. • Maybe we should make a recommendation to add some language that  allows for owners of show animals to keep two intact females in the same home. • Could alter the wording to address the number of litters in a household instead of how many intact females. • Instead of a breeder's license, perhaps we could have a special permit to have a litter of puppies. • There could be a fee tacked on that would be large enough to be a deterrent to avoid. • Teresa Burks will draft a sample of an amended ordinance for review at the next board meeting. 3. Issues and Updates: • Richard Ruth: A lady in his area came across two cats hit by a car and had called them in for pick up, and they weren't able to come and get them. She bagged them up herself. Is there some way these animals could be taken off the street and brought in for checking? • Pinkston: Animal Services have a contracted service that picks up the animal remains. They scan for the microchip to notify the owner. You contact the shelter, and then Animal Services contacts the contractor. • Pinkston will follow up to make sure Animal Services is following through with this and make sure the ball wasn't dropped. • Richard Ruth: In the event the call is made, and it is still not picked up the next day, what are the options? What can a citizen that is concerned about this do? Should the person pick it up and take it to a vet, a rescue, or a shelter? • Pinkston: If someone says this is happening, they are welcome to bag it up and take it to animal services. • Richard Ruth: The board received an email from Krista, from Sunny Side, about loose dogs, repeat offenders. • Public Comment (Krista): Sunny Side has issues with loose dogs. My thought is if we have people with dogs getting loose all the time is because people are not educated. Maybe we could have some dog trainers meet with these people and teach them? • Pinkston: Animal Shelter does not have anybody on staff that can do that. When you talk about repeat offenders, usually, that is when we will have to start talking about a citation. We try to educate on the care of animals. • Public Comment (Krista): When you have bad parents, they have to take parenting classes, maybe we could do this with pet owners? • Pinkston: This is certainly something that could be looked at. • Public Comment (Christy Fisher - WAAL): We did do this previously, and it was somewhat relevant. It was a court-ordered class for repeat offenders. It was maybe 20% of the class that was engaged. In the end, it came down to a funding issue. • Elaine Stephen: One excellent resource to get information about their pet is from their vet. • Public Comment Krista: Are vets trained in pet behaviors. • Teressa Burks: Very little. • Public Comment: When does it end that these people cannot have their dogs anymore. • Pinkston: It doesn’t the owner gets the animal back, but the fines increase each time. • Elaine Stephen: Has the Wichita Animal Shelter started charging the surrounding cities and county the higher fees for services yet as was put into the new City budget. • Pinkston: Everyone is paying the new higher fees except Sedgwick County. Right now, the county is the only one that is not in the contract but anticipate this will be in effect at the first of the year. PUBLIC FLOOR: George Theo Harris: Back in 2013, we had a special number for postal carriers to call if they got attacked. My mailman was attacked last October. They had five last year, but this year they are already at 16. My mailman stopped by and advised a dog jumped the fence and came towards him. He called the number, and it went to nowhere. George called the supervisor and found that it was a technical error that has now been fixed. George: There was an older woman who called him up about a dog barking. They had an officer go out there and talk to her. Now the neighbors are retaliating by kicking her car tires to set off the alarm. Pinkston: Pilot program: We had a person sitting at Animal Services all day to answer the phones. This was not feasible, and Lt. Hungria decided to have the phone forwarded to someone in the field. Cheryl (TNR coordinator for Friends of Feral Felines): I would like to express my concern about the integrity and professionalism of board member Richard Ruth. His comments on a neighborhood Facebook post, where a neighbor was trying to find a way to re-home some cats after their owner, Stan, suddenly and unexpectedly passed away, were not well received by the North Riverside neighbors who were trying to help one of their own. The neighbor's post mentioned that Stan's family members had let the cats out, and now the cats are skittish. Richard's comment stated that this is one of the issues that our animal board refuse to address in which FOFKS shrugged off during the discussion of TNR. For one, this is not a FOF situation; all the cats were already altered and not through the process of TNR. They are not a feral colony; they are three pet cats that are indoor/outdoor that have suddenly lost the man that they follow around everywhere. They are skittish because strangers, Stan's children, are in the house trying to get it organized and cleaned up. Richard went on to say, and I quote, "FOFKS preys on the aged, the poor and the lonely." I am dumbfounded that a City board member throws around blatant lies and uneducated opinions about a non-profit organization that helps members in this community members that contact us for help through an application process. How dare he minimalize the compassion of these people for being responsible and seeking assistance from FOF. Richard went on to comment to others on the post that cats were abandoned and should be reported as a crime to the Police. Richard's comments angered Stan's children as if they didn't have enough to deal with. Stan's daughter went on to correct Richard's comments. She let Richard know that they did not put the cats out purposefully or abandon them; their father's death came as a surprise. Her father loved these cats and spent a lot of time outside. The cats were not comfortable with the children when they started cleaning the property, and the cats would not come near them. They are leaving food out for them, and they have never been mistreated or neglected. Another daughter of Stan was upset by Richard's comments about it being a police matter; she did not care for his assumptions about their family. These comments coming from Richard are not what should be coming from a member of a City run advisory board. We request that Richard be removed from the board and provide a written apology to Stan's children for his hurtful, presumptive comments. • Motion – Motion to adjourn the meeting • Board Action – Voted 7-0 (Motion Passes) Recommended Action: Provide comment/ Take appropriate action. Next Meeting Nov. 18, 2020, 4:00 PM at the Kansas Humane Society Adjourn Meeting adjourned at 5:52 PM.